IFC invests $52 million in Nigerian agriculture

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Government of Nigeria to implement a $2 million initiative targeting regulatory and institutional reforms that will strengthen Nigeria’s agribusiness sector, creating jobs and economic growth.

Nigeria is one of three African countries (along with Ethiopia and Tanzania) to benefit from the World Bank Group’s Livestock and Micro Reforms in Agribusiness (L-MIRA) program, whose overarching objective is to improve competitiveness of the dairy and poultry sectors.

Alejandro Alvarez de la Campa, Practice Manager for the World Bank Group’s Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation global practice, said: “Dairy and poultry are important livestock sectors that contribute significantly to agribusiness, a key growth sector in Nigeria. By introducing harmonized and simplified regulations related to animal feed, drugs and vaccines, this initiative will help spur socio-economic development in the country.”

The World Bank Group’s Nigeria project will streamline the regulation of animal feed to remove overlapping or redundant regulatory requirements related to the standards and quality control mechanism, as well as the registration and renewal process for drugs and vaccines.

The project will also support reforms to better and more efficiently regulate animal feed in markets, and coordinate government agencies involved in regulating animal feed.

The four-year initiative is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was endorsed by key national partners, including Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, the Standards Organization of Nigeria and the Nigerian Institute of Animal Science.